Los Altos vs. Mountain View: Trains, Taxes, Zoning and the Market

Los Altos and Mountain View share a border in Santa Clara County, less than 2 miles apart center to center. Mountain View has trains, big employers and a city transfer tax; Los Altos has none of the three. Here’s the comparison, with a live-market snapshot from our City Match-Up.

The basics

• Incorporated. Mountain View in 1902; Los Altos in 1952.
• Trains. Mountain View has two Caltrain stations, Mountain View and San Antonio, and VTA light rail. Los Altos has no rail station. See Homes Near Caltrain.
• Downtowns. Los Altos has its downtown around Main and State streets; Mountain View’s runs along Castro Street. See Homes Near Downtown.
• Employers and parks. Google (Alphabet) and Intuit have their headquarters in Mountain View, and Shoreline Park is on its bay side. See Homes Near Tech Campuses and Homes Near Parks.
• Electricity. Both get power from Silicon Valley Clean Energy, delivered by PG&E.
• School districts. Parts of both cities are in the Los Altos School District and the Mountain View–Los Altos Union High School District, and Mountain View is also served by the Mountain View Whisman district. Check the district’s boundary lookup for any address.

At closing

Mountain View adds a city transfer tax of $3.30 per $1,000 (1.5% of the whole price above $6 million, under Measure G); Los Altos adds none. On a $2 million sale that’s $8,800 in Mountain View and $2,200 in Los Altos. See our transfer tax guide.

Homes and rules

• Single-story zoning. Los Altos created its R1-S overlay in 2000 and has adopted it in several neighborhoods; Mountain View uses a one-story height overlay in areas such as Grandmeadow. See overlays by city.
• Eichlers. Our index lists two Eichler tracts in each: Fallen Leaf Park and San Antonio Court in Los Altos, and Fairview in Monta Loma and Grandmeadow in Mountain View. See Silicon Valley Eichler tracts.
• Rentals. Mountain View’s rent stabilization law covers apartments built before February 1, 1995, with a 2.5% allowed increase for September 2026 to August 2027. See rent rules by city.
• Next door. See Los Altos vs. Palo Alto, Los Altos vs. Cupertino and Mountain View vs. Sunnyvale.

The market, in a snapshot

From our City Match-Up on October 18, 2026, for houses, condos and townhomes, with sales from the previous 90 days:

• Homes for sale: 29 in Los Altos, 79 in Mountain View.
• Sales in 90 days: 75 in Los Altos, 121 in Mountain View.
• Median sale price: $4.73 million in Los Altos, $1.75 million in Mountain View.
• Median price per square foot: $1,995 in Los Altos, $1,087 in Mountain View.
• Median sale-to-list: 104.6% in Los Altos, 100.9% in Mountain View.
• Months of supply: 1.2 in Los Altos, 2.0 in Mountain View.

Medians follow the mix of homes, and these numbers change daily, so open the live City Match-Up and switch to houses only to compare like with like.

Weighing the two? Call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.